David Meerman Scott, a well-known marketing strategist, coined the term "newsjacking," which he describes as "the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business." The concept makes sense, and we all know that a great way to gain relevance online is by leveraging hot topics and news items that are beginning to trend-but it's a competitive, and fast-moving, field. How do content marketers stay on top of the relevant trends and news in their industries to ensure they're curating and communicating fresh, engaging content?

Gale has announced a new eBook program that integrates e-reference books in a database interface. Upon its release in October 2003, Gale Virtual Reference Library will offer libraries the opportunity to select from an initial collection of 85 reference sources (encyclopedias, almanacs, and series) to create a customized, integrated online information service. Each library customizes Gale Virtual Reference Library to fit its needs, selecting from a selection of titles to serve the needs of children, academics, and the general population. Gale manages the library's collection, showing patrons only the titles it has purchased, which can be linked from the library's OPAC through MARC records. Usage is unlimited and available through remote access. Gale Virtual Reference Library is accessed from a common menu that integrates all the library's Gale databases--eBooks, resource centers, periodical databases, and electronic journals from Ingenta. Users can search a single eBook or search across the entire collection. Hyperlinks are used throughout, allowing users to travel to related content within the collection, from the table of contents and indexes to appropriate text, as well as to relevant external Web sites. Though no special reader is required, articles and essays are stored in open eBook format so users can download to portable devices for their own convenience.

Gale and Peterson's, a publisher of higher education resources, have joined forces to create an online testing and reference service that will help students find and prepare for colleges and career programs as well as prepare for standardized tests. Gale will publish the Testing & Education Reference Center, designed to be a most complete college-prep resource, with content provided by Peterson's. The product helps users find colleges, graduate schools, career and specialty programs, and even private high schools, using a variety of search paths including location, tuition, sports programs, and others. Detailed information is presented on each school or program. Once a school has been selected, users will find a general overview for that institution, costs, scholarships, and other details. Further, they will find online practice tests for most college, graduate, and/or certification exams. More than 30 handbooks are available in PDF format, spanning a broad range of interests, from fire-fighting and military flight aptitude tests to law school entrance exams. Designed for use in the library or at home using a library gateway, Testing & Education Reference Center also includes resources for preparing college application essays and resumes. Free trials of Testing & Education Reference Center will be available when Gale launches the product at the end of July.

Gale has also announced that it will market and sell seven databases by its Munich-based imprint K.G. Saur in North America. Among the databases that will be available is the Yearbook of International Organizations Online, which is a reference to international organizations. The online version of the Yearbook of International Organizations provides coverage of non-profit international organizations, whether governmental or non-governmental. It includes all types of organizations, from formal structures to informal networks, from professional bodies to recreational clubs. Other databases include: English Language Bibliography: 1945 to the Present; International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IBZ); International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IBR); International Annual Bibliography of Congress Proceedings (IJBK); International Annual Bibliography of Festschriften (IJBF); and Bibliography of Scholarly Italian Periodical Literature.

Gale will soon add JSTOR linking to its two Modern Language Association (MLA) online products. In July, libraries that subscribe to Literature Resource Center with the MLA International Bibliography module or MLA on InfoTrac will link directly to the full-text journals in their JSTOR collections. Earlier this year, JSTOR announced the release of its sixth journal collection, a compendium of 47 Language and Literature titles spanning many literary cultures, including those from China, Germany, Africa, and the U.S. The Language & Literature Collection adds 1.4 million new pages to JSTOR's electronic archive of scholarly journals to which the Gale/MLA products will link. Gale also has linking agreements with Ingenta and Google.